in the dust of bones, the creep in your soul
by Grand Phoenix
Summary: Not everyone is as strong as you. [Maiev and Sira, in Darkshore][BfA era, during the Battle for Darkshore]


In the end, Maiev decides she has no one to blame but herself for all that has lead up to this moment. Damn Sylvanas and the Horde all she wants, but _they_ weren't the ones that put Sira in charge while she went to the Vault and woke the Illidari from their imprisonment. _They_ didn't force her to lead their sisters across the Isles, from the sunken berth of Azsuna to the high-class glamour of ancient Suramar, to fight a war to end all wars that had been brewing in the Great Dark and, until before the planet had been wounded, failed time and again to break through.

 _Not everyone is as strong as you,_ a voice sneers in the back of her head. Like a bee's sting, and what Maiev wouldn't give to reach for it, grab it, and crush it to a bloody pulp in her hand. _Even the great hunter can become prey._

She meets Sira's gaze from across the platform. The red glow of her eyes behind that dark helm is unworldly; it sets her heart to stutter against her breast, the hackles on her neck to rise, and a cold sweat break out on her skin.

Hatred should be directed at the enemy, at the people that set their home ablaze, pillaged their lands, and slaughtered their people.

That hatred should not be directed at _her_.

 _Where did I go wrong?_

"You abandoned me, Maiev!" Sira cries. "You and all the fools that follow you are no better than the goddess who refused to step in when our people suffered the most! You only act on what you think is right for _yourself_ , not for others! Don't you dare preach to me about justice! I _died_ following your orders!"

"So you would stand with the Horde to seek your vengeance?" Maiev asks her, and tries not to let slip the sliver of incredulity into her voice. "After all they've done?"

"In life I was a blind mongrel, thinking if I walked in the light of Elune I would have all the unresolved answers of the world presented before me. But now, in death, I see I was wrong...so very, very wrong! I was lied to...betrayed! Now I see the truth. Now I know. Now I know…that there was never any hope for the kaldorei so long as they live! So long as they continue to serve the false goddess and wallow in blissful ignorance and despair!"

"And you think following Sylvanas is the right answer?" Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the bats bearing their riders descend and land on the platform. On the shore, illuminated by the scrim of moonlight, the arms on the catapults rear back; a couple beats later, and the payloads are launched. A green fog soon envelops the shore.

Sira gestures behind her with a grand, dramatic sweep of her arm. "My dear sister, she is the only answer I need."

Maiev bites the inside of her cheek, tastes the blood that wells up around her teeth and lathers her tongue. There is a burning at her eyes, stark and clear like an exploding cocktail, and she applies pressure on her gums, focuses on the copper tang that reels back the sickness in her gut and pumps her heart hard with the fury of a thousand storms.

She grips her glaive around white knuckles. "I failed you, Sira—you and everyone I have failed to save. And I will atone for my sins for as long as it takes...by starting with you. I will free you from your torment, no matter what!" She flips the weapon up and breaks into a run, right toward Sira.

Sira laughs and holds her arms out, while the Horde roars and surges forward. "Torment? This is freedom, Maiev! Pure, sweet freedom! And I will not have it any other way!" Then she brandishes her own glaives and meets Maiev headlong.

* * *

 **Notes0:** _(That feeling when the notes are longer than the actual story.)_ But goodness, I'm sorry they got so out of control; however, I have a lot of say about this, as listed below:

 **Notes1:** I wasn't intending to go back to WoW fanfics - at least, not right away. But I hadn't gotten around to doing the Battle for Darkshore and its introductory quests, so last week (week and a half) ago I decided to stop being lazy and commit to them on my Horde main and, later on, my Alliance main yesterday before the Horde conquered Darkshore on the NA servers early in the morning.

 **Notes2:** One of the most noted criticisms regarding _Battle for Azeroth_ is the story and how it's a retread of _Mists of Pandaria_ , almost, they claim, down to a T; the Horde playerbase loathes to follow a Warchief who willingly starts a war to not only bolster the number of undead but to hoard the azerite for themselves and push the Alliance out of Kalimdor so that an ocean between them would forever divide them from future hostilities (for with the advent of azerite, it's inevitable it would be weaponized, which has already happened with Ashvane cannons and latest state-of-the-art goblin mechs), while the Alliance playerbase loathes to follow Anduin into battle - a young if inexperienced human man who is "perfect" (in light of the issue of combating toxic masculinity, but that's a can of worms I won't open here) and "can do no wrong" (yet if he were wrong, Tyrande and her Wardens wouldn't have told him to go fuck himself when he refused to help them in Darkshore).

Personally, I think the story is alright. I won't say it's rushed, because I myself don't think it's such; an example of rushed content is best seen in _Warlords of Draenor_ , specifically with how fast AU!Orgrim turns on AU!Blackhand at the end of the Talador storyline, and I consider that to be a victim of being butchered on the cutting board, on top of the aborted questline that dealt with Greymane and the worgen falling prey to a sickness, Maraad and Yrel having a romance (I am still convinced the fans screaming at Yrel being resorted to arm-candy status caused this to get scrapped), all of Farahlon, etc.

I had often read on r/wow how "bad" and "awful" BfA's storyline has been so far...but I often wonder if people say it's "bad" because it truly is so (whereupon it is universally agreed upon)...or it's "bad" because the story is going in a direction they did not anticipate to happen nor agree with. This came to a head in 8.1, with the revelation of dead night elves agreeing to be risen into dark rangers and wardens and serve Sylvanas in an act of retribution (or, perhaps, be compelled to do so, if you really look into the Brynja's Beacon toy), on top of Nathanos going toe-to-toe with Tyrande and Malfurion while being empowered by Brynja and Signe. That, however, is the finalized version of the patch, whereas earlier iterations were very likely false narratives placed with the intention to fuck with dataminers and get a rise out of the playerbase (which Blizzard has come out to say they do so, but mainly to prevent actual spoilers from leaking out).

People will say that having Sira and Delaryn piss on Elune and swear fealty to Sylvanas in "the span of ten seconds" is absurd, lore-breaking, unrealistic, and the perfect case of character assassination (of course, this being the WoW fandom, you would think the best characters are the ones they don't get touched at all until they do). I think it's like that for gameplay purposes - hence why it seems so sudden - but I like to think the Shadowlands operate under the same rule as the Twisting Nether: that time runs differently compared to waking reality (so, say, with Alleria and Turalyon being gone twenty-five years in real-time they were gone for one thousand years in the Nether). There's no guarantee that that's the case where it concerns the Shadowlands, so consider this specific paragraph to be speculation on my part.

On the other hand, by doing both sides of the Terror of Darkshore questline (even as early as Tyrande walking out on Anduin after the cinematic; I can't tell if it's intended or a bug, but I noticed Sira lingered at the table before leaving the room), it shows that Sira has had both doubts about herself back in _Legion_ and was currently having a crisis of faith, best seen when she asks Tyrande, Maiev, and Shandris where Elune was when Teldrassil burned, before Nathanos killed her. Combined this with the dialogue she and Maiev share on the Horde Darkshore warfront, this in fact makes her reasons to choose reanimation not only believable and personal and not a subject of bad writing as people make it out to be. I do not believe, for even a second, this is a matter of Blizzard getting their rocks off by making the night elves suffer.

 **Notes3:** There was a sentence in the original document that had Maiev shaming the Nightborne for siding with the Horde ("...their kin, brother and sister and mother and father lost and estranged for ten thousand years, and how dare they stand behind the Banshee Queen after the Alliance—Tyrande—did everything they could to free them from Elisande's shackles and throw Gul'dan from his yoke; how could they be content to side with conquerors, addicts, con artists and second-rate bootlickers that lacked both a spine and brain?). I had considered keeping it in...but then I wondered if Maiev would've really given a shit about Thalyssra and the Nightborne, seeing as they are former Highborne that embodied the old kaldorei traditions and attitude from before the Empire collapsed in the War of the Ancients. Tyrande was still wary of the Nightborne even as the Kaldorei helped them, so I think this same sentiment would be reflected upon others like Maiev and the Watchers because - surprise, surprise - all that mattered to Maiev was making sure Illidan didn't start any funny business. Therefore, I left it out of the final version; it might be fitting to tackle this subject in another story.


End file.
